Two police officers were denied bail and ordered to 120 days in jail before they can apply for bail yesterday after they appeared in court charged with perverting the course of public justice.
The officers were denied bail under the provisions in the recently-assented Bail Act since they allegedly committed the offence while in possession of their licensed guns.
The officers — Constables Justin Charles and Ryan Mahabir — appeared before magistrate Aden Stroude charged with soliciting $1,500 from Michael Lewis on May 2 at St Helena Junction, Piarco, to forego a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.
They also are charged with concealing two evidential results from a breathalyser test at the Caroni Police Station. Mahabir faces a third charge of making a false entry into the station diary, claiming that Lewis was held for a loitering offence, warned and allowed to leave the station.
The two were granted $75,000 bail at the Central Police Station which was revoked after Stroude informed them their offence was one of the 14 offences under the new ammendment of Bail Act.
Before denying the men bail Stroude asked Mahabir’s attorney, Fareed Ali, to address him on bail.
Ali said his client was a serving member of the Police Service since 2012 and was the father of two children between four months and five years.
He added that his 27-year-old client who lives at Emmanuel Trace, Cunupia, had no pending or previous matters and was willing to adhere to any conditions proposed.
Charles, who was unrepresented, told the magistrate he lived with his parents at Charles Avenue, Aripo. The 23-year-old said he has been a police officer since 2013 and like his co-accused had no pending or previous matters as he was a serving member of the Police Service.
There was no objection to the men being granted bail by court prosecutor Insp Callister Charles who wanted conditions be attached to their bail, such as handing over their passports and reporting to a police station weekly.
After listening to Ali and Charles on why he and his co-accused should be granted bail Stroude left the courtroom and returned, asking whether the officers had in their possession their service weapons when they allegedly committed the acts.
When he was informed in the affirmative, Stroude asked Ali to address him on the ammendment to the Bail Act.
After requesting time to consider the legislation, Ali returned to court and informed Stroude that the denial of bail should not arise as the spirit of the law seemingly addressed those who were in illegal possession of a gun.
He added that by virtue of their office they should not be denied bail, given they have legal authority to be in possession of a gun. Ali added that since the law was only one month old he had no past cases to refer to substantiate his claim.
“The law is ambiguous and it does not specify whether the person is a licensed firearm user or not. The spirit of the law does not deal with the holders of firearm user’s licence,” Ali said.
Stroude disagreed, saying that the law addresses offences and not people who may or may not be holders of firearm users licences.
The matter was adjourned to June 1 and transferred it to the Chaguanas Magistrates’ Court.